HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Pochmann House

Round Top, Fayette County, Texas

Marker Inscription

German immigrant Zoellistin (Cellestin) Pochmann (1835-1862) came to Texas about 1856-57. He worked as a cabinetmaker in La Grange and married Karoline Wandke (1837-1910) in 1857. They moved to a 3-room house about three miles northwest of here in 1860. After making improvements to the house they relocated the structure to this site about 1861. Zoellistin died from a snakebite in 1862. His son, Heinrich (Hy) Pochmann (1860-1926) also became a skilled cabinetmaker and served as mayor of Round Top for four years. Heinrich and Clara (Ebner) Pochmann reared their four sons here. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

German immigrant Zoellistin Pochmann came to Texas around 1856โ€“57 and worked as a cabinetmaker in La Grange, marrying Karoline Wandke in 1857. The couple settled on a small three-room house, improved it, and relocated the whole structure to this site about 1861, only for Zoellistin to die of a snakebite in 1862. His son Heinrich carried on the cabinetmaking trade and served four years as mayor of Round Top, raising his own family in the house.

Why it matters

It traces the arc of German immigration into central Texas, where skilled craftsmen and their descendants shaped the towns and civic life of the Hill Country.

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Related people

  • ยท Zoellistin Pochmann
  • ยท Karoline Wandke Pochmann
  • ยท Heinrich Pochmann

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Wandke House

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Johann Traugott Wandke left Prussia in 1855, settling near La Grange with his wife and daughters before moving to Round Top around 1860. About 1863 he built this native-stone home and workshop, where his skills as a mechanic and cabinetmaker found their finest expression in the pipe organs he crafted from local cedar. His instruments served several area churches, including Round Top's Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

Schiege House

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Prussian immigrants Charles and Caroline Schiege acquired land in this German-settled corner of Fayette County in 1861. Their only surviving child, Charles Henry Jr., built a two-story home here about 1885 and, after being widowed, raised ten children with his second wife. Beyond farming, he ran a local cigar factory and served Round Top as justice of the peace, mayor, marshal, and alderman.

Schiege Cigar Factory Manager's House

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Around 1882, German immigrant Charles Schiege opened a cigar factory at Round Top, staffing it largely with single men who slept in the building's attic. For his factory manager โ€” usually a married man โ€” Schiege built this modest German vernacular cottage. Among its early residents was manager Paul Herman Helmecke, who lived here with his wife Martha and their five children in the 1880s and 1890s, part of the close-knit German community that shaped this corner of Fayette County.

Schueddemagen Home

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Built in 1852, this home was modeled on the Saxony house of its builder, immigrant Carl Siegismunde Bauer, and raised for his daughter and her husband, Conrad Schueddemagen. Its steep roof and two-foot native limestone walls, plastered inside and out, along with cedar ceilings, floors, and mantels, reflect the Old World building traditions the German settlers carried to Central Texas.